Robert Herrick’s elegy for willow trees seems to suit a dryad that feeds on, and perhaps relieves, sorrow. I’m interested in her grove as a vis source for a covenant, but for it to work, the magi need the local people to have passionate, tragic affairs. I could see the dryad making wicker crowns that are sold in the Merceria in Venice.
First Herrick’s poem, then two versions of the Dryad of the Forlorn.
To the willow tree
Thou art to all lost love the best,
The only true plant found,
Wherewith young men and maids distrest
And left of love, are crown’d.
When once the lover’s rose is dead
Or laid aside forlorn,
Then willow-garlands, ’bout the head,
Bedew’d with tears, are worn.
When with neglect, the lover’s bane,
Poor maids rewarded be,
For their love lost their only gain
Is but a wreath from thee.
And underneath thy cooling shade,
When weary of the light,
The love-spent youth, and love-sick maid,
Come to weep out the night.
Dereliquerata
Faerie Might: 20
Characteristics: Int +1, Per +1, Pre 0, Com +3, Str 0, Sta 0, Dex 0, Qik 0
Size: -1
Virtues and Flaws: Greater Faerie Power, Cognizant Within Role, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Feast of the Fae (tears of jilted lovers), Humanoid Faerie, Increased Faerie Might, Lesser Faerie Powers, Observant, Restricted Might (winter), Small Frame, Sovereign Ward (requited love), Vunerable to Iron. Vulnerable to injury to her tree.
Personality Traits: Compassionate +3
Reputation: Where lovers go to weep (local) +1
Combat: n/a
Soak: 0
Wound Penalties –1 (1-4), –3 (5-8), –5 (9-12), Incapacitated (13–16), Dead (17+)
Pretenses: Athletics 3 (dancing), Awareness 5 (humans), Charm 5 (sorrowful people), Etiquette 3 (faerie court), Faerie Speech 5 (conversation), Music 6 (woodwinds)
Powers:
Craft Magical Trinket: 10 points, Int 0, Mentem
Creates a wicker circlet that grants the Clear Thinker Virtue until removed.
Coils of the Entangling Plants: 2 points, Init.–2, Herbam: as the spell of the same name, ArM5 page 138.
Consoling Sound : 3 points, Init –3, Mentem: May create disenchantment with a lover while the target can hear the dryad or the moving leaves of her tree. (Variant of Enthralling Sound).
Extended Glamour: 0 points, constant, Mentem.
Equipment:
Vis: 4 pawns Mentem, in tree’s wood.
Appearance: A quiet, consoling woman who waits in the shade by the river.
Source: Based on the Lesser Nymph in Realms of Power: Faerie page 73.
Desola
Desola is a grandmotherly figure who sells wickerwork in the Merceria, generally headbands and masks. This dryad’s tree is in a Venetian garden behind the house in which is lives. This is mysterious because the gardens in Venice are like enormous buried tubs. The tree isn’t where it is naturally. There must be a story there: moving trees is difficult, particularly if the dryad cannot be pacified.
Desola’s stall iso one of the less fantastical in the Merceria. Her reputation is well-established among the matrons of the city. A visit to her stall is, in some families, a rite of passage. She also has a sideline with priests unable to keep their thoughts pure.
Faerie Might: 20
Characteristics: Int +1, Per +1, Pre 0, Com +3, Str 0, Sta 0, Dex 0, Qik 0
Size: -1
Virtues and Flaws: Greater Faerie Power, Cognizant Within Role, Faerie Sight, Faerie Speech, Feast of the Fae (tears of jilted lovers), Increased Faerie Might, Lesser Faerie Powers, Observant, Passes for Human, Restricted Might (winter), Small Frame, Sovereign Ward (requited love), Vulnerable to injury to her tree.
Personality Traits: Compassionate +3
Reputation: An aid to the broken-hearted (Venetian matrons) +3
Combat: n/a
Soak: 0
Wound Penalties –1 (1-4), –3 (5-8), –5 (9-12), Incapacitated (13–16), Dead (17+)
Pretenses: Athletics 3 (boating), Awareness 5 (shunned lovers), Charm 5 (sorrowful people), Etiquette 3 (faerie court), Faerie Speech 5 (conversation), Music 6 (woodwinds)
Powers:
Craft Magical Trinket: 10 points, Int 0, Mentem
Creates a wicker circlet, mask, or bracelet that grants the Clear Thinker Virtue until removed.
Coils of the Entangling Plants: 2 points, Init.–2, Herbam: as the spell of the same name, ArM5 page 138.
Consoling Sound : 3 points, Init –3, Mentem: May create disenchantment with a lover while the target can hear the dryad or the moving leaves of her tree. (Variant of Enthralling Sound).
Guide: 3 points, Init -1, Mentem. Desola uses this power to draw in customers, but carefully never uses it to advise people about their love affairs. Doing so prevents her using Feast of the Fae with a weeping person.
Equipment:
Vis: 4 pawns Mentem, a handkerchief. Uses this to dab at the eyes of her patrons. As an option, this is an External Vis Source (Faerie Greater Virtue) which provides the holder with the Intuition Minor Virtue.
Appearance: A quiet, consoling woman who waits in the shade by the river.
Source: Based on the Lesser Nymph in Realms of Power: Faerie page 73.
Games From Folktales 